A new report highlights the grim reality of renters struggling to keep a roof over their heads in the midst of a tech-fueled economic boom: Many are losing the battle with the housing crisis.

Sobering, county-level figures compiled by the nonprofit California Housing Partnership and released Tuesday show startling increases in homelessness and a widening chasm between wages and housing costs throughout the Bay Area and elsewhere in the state.

As lawmakers wrangle with one other and the governor over the best use for California’s $6 billion budget surplus, the group behind the report — a nonprofit the state created 30 years ago to advocate for affordable housing — recommends that $2 billion be used to build apartments for low-income Californians.

“This is a housing emergency,” said Matt Schwartz, the partnership’s president and CEO. “The state should declare this a housing emergency, and some of the budget surplus needs to be made immediately available to get the homeless off the streets and into affordable housing.”

The report found that workers in core Bay Area counties would need to earn four or more times the minimum wage to afford a Bay Area apartment — and that the lowest-income renters in Alameda, Santa Clara and Contra Costa counties spend well over half their income on rent, leaving little for other needs.

“We’re seeing rents and housing prices go up to a level where people who never thought they would have to worry about housing stability are having to worry,” said Gloria Bruce, executive director of East Bay Housing Organizations, a coalition of affordable housing advocates. “I think sometimes people think of homelessness and housing affordability as two separate issues, but they are really one and the same.”

Counties are doing more than ever to coordinate services for people who have lost their homes, Bruce said, but they are struggling to keep up with the need. When it comes to finding permanent housing, she said, “there is literally no place for them to go that they can afford. We see a market that is just not serving people at the bottom.”

Other findings:

Santa Clara County’s lowest-income renters spend 62 percent of their income on rent;

Since 2008, Contra Costa County has lost 83 percent of the state and federal funding it once used to build low-income housing; it needs over 31,000 more affordable homes than it has;

Renters in San Mateo County need to earn an hourly wage of $65.29 to afford the median asking rent of $3,395 — six times the state minimum wage and more than twice the average hourly pay of a teacher, licensed nurse or carpenter;

The number of people on the street or in shelters grew by 13 percent in Santa Clara County and 36 percent in Alameda County between 2016 and 2017, the report found; the methodology for Alameda County’s biennial homeless count changed in 2017, which could explain some of that county’s increase from the previous year.

The California Housing Partnership is recommending the state spend $2 billion of its surplus on affordable housing funding to cities and counties, similar to two pending legislative proposals. Senate Bill 912 from Sens. Jim Beall, D-San Jose, and Nancy Skinner, D-Oakland, would direct $2 billion in affordable housing funding to cities and counties. Assembly Bill 3171, a bipartisan bill from Assemblyman Phil Ting, D-San Francisco — who heads the Assembly budget committee — and backed by Republican Assemblyman Brian Maienschein of San Diego, calls for a one-time infusion of $1.5 billion in matching funds for cities.

The Legislature has until June 15 to approve the state budget. Gov. Jerry Brown, who has the authority to veto individual expenditures in the budget plan, has proposed saving most of the surplus to guard against the next economic downturn. He comes back with an updated proposal later this month.

The housing partnership also calls for changing the law to allow local affordable housing measures to pass with just 55 percent support, rather than 67 percent; bringing back redevelopment agencies for low-income housing; and an aggressive campaign for a $4 billion affordable housing and veterans’ housing bond that will appear on the November statewide ballot.

“Until the voters pass it, it’s not real,” Schwartz said of the bond measure. “And we can’t afford for that bond to not become a reality, because it will be a crushing blow for us to get veterans and homeless people off the streets of California.”

Katy Murphy is based in Sacramento and covers state government for The Mercury News and East Bay Times, a beat she took on in January 2017. Before that, she was the news organization's higher education reporter, writing about UC, CSU, community colleges and private colleges. Long ago, she covered Oakland schools and other K-12 education issues.

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